Nunley's: 1st Carousel Ride, A Cautionary Tale

Image source

"There's a place for kids near The Cradle of Aviation. I always see a ton of children there. Let's see what it is," my grandfather suggested during an early autumn visit with Savannah. Turned out he was referring to the Long Island Children's Museum. We only had time for a short visit because Savvy and I needed to be home in time for her other Grandpa to pick us up, so it wasn't worth the $20/person fee to visit the museum for just 30 minutes.

LUCKILY, the same museum complex houses Nunley's Carousel, which is a famous Long Island landmark that has been operating since 1912. Score! We had just enough time to take a ride and I was SOOOO excited to have Savvy experience her very first carousel ride. It had been probably 20 years since I'd been on one and I worried I'd be nauseous from spinning around and around while listening to ridiculously loud carnival music, but my mind was occupied by keeping Savvy safe.

I thought there were two options for ways to ride the carousel. Horse or bench. Apparently there are THREE options and I wish I knew this ahead of time.

1. Horse that goes up and down--your standard merry-go-round horsie

2. Boring bench seat

3. Stationary horse

They have stationary horses on carousels??!?!?! If only there was a sign!!! How did that smart dad of a 1 year old in front of us know to choose the safest horse option? Savvy could've ridden on a toddler-friendly non-galloping horsie and I could've been spared the experience of clutching onto my slip sliding kid so she didn't fall to her death off of this horse as it went up and down from my waist height to up past my shoulders. She was too young at 13 months to understand holding onto the pole.

She was none the wiser and seemed to enjoy the ride--she didn't try to reach for my arms or even look for any sort of reassurance from me once we started moving.

Notice how I'm clutching the pole for dear life.

But really. This carousel is awesome!! I will definitely take her again! Just, if you have a child that can't hold onto the pole themselves, take my advice and find a stationary horsie.